Apple Records:

Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968, as a

division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet
for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other
artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy
Preston. In practice, by the mid-1970s, the roster had become dominated
with releases by the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed
the label from 1969 to 1973. It was then managed by Neil Aspinall on
behalf of the four Beatles and their heirs. He retired in 2007 and was
replaced by Jeff Jones.
Contents
[hide]

1 History

o 1.1 Early years: 196769

o 1.2 Klein era: 197075

o 1.3 Beatles re-issues: 19762006

o 1.4 Revival: 2006 to present

2 Design

3 Zapple Records

4 Artists who signed with Apple Records

5 Discography

6 See also

7 Notes
 8 References

9 External links
History[edit]
Early years: 196769[edit]
Apple Corps was conceived by the band by 1967, after the death of their
manager Brian Epstein; the first project the Beatles released after the
formation of Apple Corps was their film Magical Mystery Tour, which
was produced under theApple Films division. Apple Records was
officially founded by the group after their return from India in 1968, as
another sub-division of Apple Corps, which was established as a small
group of companies (Apple Retail, Apple Publishing, Apple Electronics
and so on), as part of Epstein's plan to create a tax-effective business
structure.[1]
At this time, the Beatles were contracted to EMI's Parlophone label in
the United Kingdom and Capitol Records in the United States. In a new
distribution deal, EMI and Capitol agreed to distribute Apple Records
until 1975, while EMI retained ownership of the Beatles' recordings.
Beatles recordings issued in the United Kingdom on the Apple label
carried Parlophone catalogue numbers, while US issues carried Capitol
catalogue numbers. Apple Records owns the rights to all of the Beatles'
videos and movie clips, and the rights to recordings of other artists
signed to the label. The first catalogue number, Apple 1, was a one-off
pressing of Frank Sinatra singing "Maureen Is a Champ" (with lyrics
by Sammy Cahn) to the melody of "The Lady Is a Tramp" for Ringo
Starr's then-wife Maureen. BeatlesandBeyond Radio presenter Pete
Dicks reports that the title is actually "Lady is a Champ"; it was a
surprise gift for Maureen's 21st birthday.
Initially, Apple Records and Apple Publishing signed a number of acts
whom the Beatles personally discovered or supported, and in most cases
one or more of the Beatles would be involved in the recording sessions.
Several notable artists were signed in the first year including James
Taylor, Mary Hopkin, Billy Preston, the Modern Jazz Quartet, the Iveys
(who later became Badfinger), Doris Troy, and former Liverpool
singer Jackie Lomax, who recorded George Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea".
Klein era: 197075[edit]
In 1969, the Beatles were in need of financial and managerial direction
and Lennon was introduced to Allen Klein throughMick Jagger, as Klein
was managing the Rolling Stones at the time.[2] Klein went on to manage
Apple, by virtue of his three-to-one support from the Beatles, Paul
McCartney being the only group member opposed to his involvement.
(McCartney had suggested his then new father-in-law Lee Eastman for
the job.)
After Klein took control of Apple, several sub-divisions, including Apple
Electronics, were shut down, and some of Apple Records' artistic roster
effectively dropped. Thereafter, new signings were not so numerous, and
tended to arrive through the individual actions of ex-Beatles, with the
formal approval of the others (e.g., Elephant's Memory were recruited
throughJohn Lennon, and Ravi Shankar through Harrison). McCartney
had little input into Apple Records' roster after 1970. Klein managed
Apple Corp. until March 1973 when his contract expired.
In May 1971, the Beatles' entire pre-Apple catalog on the American
Capitol label (from the singles I Want To Hold Your Hand to Lady
Madonna and from the albums Meet The Beatles! to Magical Mystery
Tour) were re-issued on the Apple label, although the album covers
remained unchanged with the Capitol logos.
Beatles re-issues: 19762006[edit]
Apple Records' distribution contract with EMI expired in 1976 and
control of the Beatles' catalogue, including solo recordings to date
by George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, reverted to EMI
(Paul McCartney had acquired ownership of his solo recordings when he
re-signed with Capitol in 1975).[3] The original UK versions of the
Beatles' albums were released worldwide on compact disc in 1987 and
1988 on the Parlophone label. Previously, Abbey Road had been issued
on CD by the EMI-Odeon label in Japan in the early 1980s. Although
this was a legitimate release, it was not authorised by the Beatles, EMI
or Apple Corps. Following the settlement of Apple's ten-year lawsuit
against EMI in 1989, new projects began to move forward, including
the Live at the BBC album and The Beatles Anthology series. It was after
the Anthology project (spearheaded by Neil Aspinall) that the company
resumed making significantly large profits again and began its revival.
Revival: 2006 to present[edit]
In 2006 the label was again newsworthy, as the long-running dispute
between Apple Records' parent company and Apple Inc. went to the
High Court (see Apple Corps v Apple Computer). In 2007, the company
settled a dispute with EMI over royalties, and announced that long term
chief executive Neil Aspinall had retired and been replaced by American
music industry executive Jeff Jones.[4] These changes led to speculation
that the Apple Records catalogueand most importantlythe Beatles
discographywould soon appear on Apple Inc.'s iTunes online music
store,[5] and that a remastering and reissue program of the Beatles' CDs
might be forthcoming (Jones having worked on reissues at Sony).[4] On 1
July 2010, it was reported that Capitol Records was planning a re-release
strategy for most of Apple's back catalogue.[6] This would include re-
releases of material by artists who worked at Apple
including Badfinger, James Taylor, Billy Preston and Mary Hopkin. On
16 November 2010, Apple Inc. launched an extensive advertising
campaign that announced the availability of the Beatles' entire catalog
on iTunes.[7]
Design[edit]

German release of the Iveys' albumMaybe Tomorrow

Standard Apple album and single labels displayed a bright green Granny
Smithapple on the A-side, while the flipside displayed the cross section
of the apple. The bright green apple returned for Beatles CDs releases in
the 1990s, following initial CD releases on Parlophone.
On the US issue of the Beatles' Let It Be album, the Granny Smith apple
was red. The reason was that in the United States that album, being the
soundtrack to the movie of the same name, was, for contractual reasons,
being manufactured and distributed by United Artists Records and not
Capitol Records, so the red apple was used to mark the difference. The
red apple also appeared on the back cover, and on the 2009 remastered
edition back cover. In the late 1970s, Capitol's parent company EMI
purchased United Artists Records and Capitol gained the American
rights to the Let It Be soundtrack album (along with the American rights
to another, earlier, United Artists Beatles movie soundtrack LP, 1964's A
Hard Day's Night).
Aside from the red apple, other examples in which the apple has been
altered include George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass triple
album, on which the first two discs have orange apples while the third
has a jar label reading Apple Jam; black and white apples on John
Lennon's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono's
album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band; a blue apple on Ringo Starr's single
"Back Off Boogaloo"; Harrison's album Extra Texture (Read All About
It), on which the apple (in shrunken cartoon form) is eaten away at its
core (this was intended to be a joke because it was released at a time
when Apple Records was beginning to fold); and a red apple on Starr's
compilation album Blast from Your Past. Other types of apples were also
used: in 1971, for Lennon's Imagine and Ono's Fly, the apples
respectively featured pictures of Lennon and Ono, as did the apples for
Ono's 1973 Approximately Infinite Universe and the singles that were
released from these three albums.
Zapple Records[edit]
The Zapple label of George Harrison's Electronic Sound LP (US issue)
Zapple Records, an Apple Records subsidiary run by Barry Miles, a
friend of McCartney, was intended as an outlet for the release of spoken
word and avant garde records, as a budget label.[8] It was active from 3
February 1969[9] until June 1969, and only two albums were released on
the label, one by Lennon and Ono (Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with
the Lions) and one by Harrison (Electronic Sound). An album of
readings by Richard Brautigan was planned for release as Zapple 3,
and acetate disc copies were cut, but, said Miles, "The Zapple label was
folded by Klein before the record could be released. The first two Zapple
records did come out. We just didn't have [Brautigan's record] ready in
time before Klein closed it down. None of the Beatles ever heard
it."[10] Brautigan's record was eventually released as Listening to Richard
Brautigan on Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Apple distributor EMI, in
the US only.[10]
The first record that was done for Zapple was by poet Charles Olon.
[11]
According to Miles, a spoken word album by Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
which had been recorded and edited, would have been Zapple 4, and a
spoken word album by Michael McClure had also been recorded.[10] A
planned Zapple release of a UK appearance by comedian Lenny
Bruce was never completed. An early 1969 press release also
named Pablo Casals as an expected guest on the label. American
author Ken Kesey was given a tape recorder to record his impressions of
London, but they were never released. Miles also had the intention of
bringing world leaders to the label.[8] Zapple was shut down in June 1969
by Klein, apparently with the backing of Lennon.[12]